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Ming Sen Shiue

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“ I'm not saying it's right. I know it's not right, but that's the way I've chosen it. ”
— Shiue

Ming Sen Shiue is a Taiwanese-born American stalker and later an abductor, rapist, and murderer, primarily targeting his former algebra teacher Mary Stauffer. He kidnapped Mary and her daughter Elizabeth, as well as killed a boy named Jason Whitman when he was a witness.

Early Life[]

Shiue's father, a University of Minnesota professor, died when Shiue was three. Shiue moved to Minnesota his mother and two younger siblings when Shiue was eight. Shiue's mother recalled him as a pathological liar, was unmanageable and with a sense of unrealistic entitlement to be in the right all the time, and was physically violent to his siblings, which made her afraid of him. Shiue set fires to various apartments and vandalized numerous cars with rocks, resulting in his mandated psychotherapy at the age of fourteen. Shiue was taught by Mary Stauffer during his one year at Alexander Ramsey High School in the ninth grade, developing a disturbed obsession with her. Never forgetting about her, Shiue wrote various sexually violent and perverse stories, particularly focused on Mary, to keep to himself as an outlet for not being in a position to sexually abuse Mary. While Mary was living with her husband and children in the Philippines for Christian missionary work, Shiue tracked Mary's husband's parents, believing Mary was there in the hopes of abducting her. Breaking into their home in Duluth in 1975, Shiue held the couple at gunpoint, tied them when they were on the floor, and threatened to kill them if they spoke with police about the attack; the couple would maintain their silence about the attack until after Mary and her daughter Elizabeth were missing. The Stauffers returned to the U.S. in 1979, and when Shiue found out in 1980, he stalked Mary for months to find the opportune moment to abduct her.

Kidnappings and Murder[]

"We didn't know minute to minute if we'd be alive the next minute."
- Mary Stauffer during an interview with her and Elizabeth about their captivity

Ming Sen Shiue Today

A recent mugshot of Shiue

After tracking Mary to her residence at Bethel University, Shiue found Mary with her daughter Elizabeth at a beauty salon in Roseville, on May 16, 1980. Shiue tie them up and forced them into the trunk of his RV outside the salon, but he stopped twice to quiet them when they made noises to draw someone's attention and get rescued. The second time, a boy named Jason Wilkman did hear the Stauffers, so he was shoved into the trunk as well. After Shiue drove out to the Carlos Avery Wildlife Refuge in Anoka County, he killed Jason with a metal rod and left him there, then taking Mary and Elizabeth to his house. They were chained together in a closet, but during the majority of their captivity for around two months, Shiue kept them both separated, Mary left in the closet and Elizabeth sealed in a box in Shiue's van whenever he went to work. Shiue would repeatedly chain Mary to his living room furniture and rape her, terrorizing her with numerous lies about made-up failures in his life he said he blamed her for, such as his B- average in her class preventing his scholarship and being a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War. Shiue threatened to kill Mary's husband and son if she tried to escape with Elizabeth. On July 7, on a day Mary and Elizabeth were together while Shiue was out of the house, Mary broke out of the closet and called the police on a phone in the kitchen. In spite of the police instructing the mother and daughter to stay in the house, Elizabeth insisted she and Mary wait behind Shiue's car in the driveway, as she was too afraid of Shiue and when he would return. An officer found them, his gun out from believing at first they were Shiue ready to attack, but they were released of the chains joining them both and taken to safety. The police arrested Shiue at his office.

Trial, Later Crimes, and Aftermath[]

At the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center, Shiue solicited inmate Richard Green to help Shiue escape from jail and to kill Mary and Elizabeth to silence their testimonies. Green instead sold Shiue out to the FBI, which only strengthened the case against him. With the risk of execution from Shiue facing a first-degree murder charge, he got the charge reduced by telling police where Jason was after he was killed. Under the Federal Kidnapping Act, Shiue was found guilty of the abductions of Mary and Elizabeth and for raping Mary and was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a mandatory sentence of 30 years before his eligibility before parole. Shiue was sentenced in 1981 for the second-degree murder of Jason Wilkman to a concurrent 40 years in prison. Mary was called to testify for the trial, during which Shiue possessed a smuggled knife on his person. He rushed Mary and slashed her face and neck with the knife, which required her getting 62 stitches, while Shiue also threatened her and Elizabeth's lives.

Mary Elizabeth Stauffer Today

Mary and Elizabeth Stauffer, at a recent press conference after Shiue's parole denial

The crimes saw extensive coverage in true crime media, including the novel Stalking Mary by Eileen Bridgeman Biernat and the 2019 Lifetime made-for-tv film Abducted: Mary Stauffer Story, starting Alyson Hannigan, Daphne Hoskins, and Howie Lai. Shiue was eligible for mandatory release in 2010, but in spite of his apology to Mary and insistence on her forgiveness, his opportunity was denied. Judge Jenny Walker Jasper ruled for Shiue's classification as a dangerous sex offender and the freedom to detain him indefinitely if he ever secured parole, which Shiue failed to get overturned on appeal. Shiue was ruled to be a sexually sadistic psychopath and has never sought sex offender treatment in prison.

Modus Operandi[]

Shiue primarily targeted Mary Stauffer out of a mixture of obsession and projected rage. He first broke into the home of her in-laws, tying them up at gunpoint and threatening to kill them if they reported him before leaving, as Mary wasn't there and he didn't meet his agenda. After five years of tracking her down, Shiue abducted Mary and her daughter Elizabeth at gunpoint outside a beauty salon and forced them into the trunk of his RV, then later Jason Wilkman when he was a witness. After Shiue stopped the car and killed Jason by bludgeoning him with a pipe, leaving him dead at the Carlos Avery Wildlife Refuge, he chained the Stauffers together in a closet. Shiue would periodically take Mary to the living room to chain her to the furniture and rape her, telling her lies about his fictitious life failures to traumatize her further and recording the rapes and harassment on video. When Shiue went to work, Elizabeth was locked in a box in his van to keep her and Mary separate, threatening their lives if they escaped. The Stauffers still escaped and called the police for their successful rescue. Shiue didn't stop targeting Mary even in custody, from offering a fee for an inmate to kill her and Elizabeth and help him break out, to jumping Mary and slashing her face with a smuggled knife in open court.

Known Victims[]

Jason Wilkman Mary Elizabeth Stauffer

Shiue's victims, Jason Wilkman and Mary and Elizabeth Stauffer

  • Minnesota
    • Unknown dates:
      • Three victimless arsons
      • Numerous victimless car vandalisms
      • His unidentified siblings (assaulted; repeatedly beaten)
    • 1975, Duluth: The home invasion attack (assaulted; broke into their home, held at gunpoint, and bound)
      • Mary's unidentified mother-in-law
      • Mary's unidentified father-in-law
    • May 16, 1980:
      • Roseville: The Stauffer family abductions (both abducted at gunpoint, bound, and held captive for two months; were rescued on July 7; later attempted to solicit their murders)
        • Mary Stauffer (also repeatedly raped; previously stalked for years; later assaulted in 1981 by slashing her face with a knife)
        • Elizabeth Stauffer (also locked in a box and drove around in his van)
      • Jason Wilkman, 6 (abducted and bound; later bludgeoned with a pipe in Anoka County and left at the Carlos Avery Wildlife Refuge)

On Criminal Minds[]

While never directly mentioned or referenced in the show, Shiue appears to be an inspiration for the following unsubs:

  • Season Eight
    • Arthur Rykov ("Through the Looking Glass") - Both are stalkers and murderers with family lineages hailing from Asia, targeted their victims out of projected rage, abducted multiple victims in the same families and additional male witnesses, the latter whom each of them killed, separated the victims so they couldn't communicate with each other or coordinate their escapes, told the victims lies to terrorize them, the families were threatened with being killed if they didn't comply with the captors' demands, and the survivors were eventually rescued at and near the respective hideouts.
    • Diane Turner ("Zugzwang") - Both are stalkers and murderers with parents who died, targeted their former teachers, projected rage against their targets of obsession over their respective academic history (which was later revealed to be a lie in Shiue's case), abducted their respective primary targets, killed a male victim who was a witness to the abductions, and threatened to kill their targets of obsession (though only Diane succeeded).

Sources[]

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